We are happy to announce the arrival of Brennan Lee Phelps! (warning: this is an extremely long post…)
Brennan Lee Phelps
He made his debut into the world Friday, September 2, 2011 at 6:10 am. He was 6 lb and 3 oz and was 18 inches long.
His timing was actually pretty great. As I mentioned before, Bryan has been called and was serving on jury duty for a case that began Aug. 29 (the Steven Strate case). I was so scared that I would go into labor while Bryan was in trial and I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of him. Due to scheduling with the court system Bryan didn’t have to go to jury duty on Thursday or Friday (they have Thursdays and Fridays set aside each week for different kinds of trials (family, civil, etc.). I was very happy about that because I had my 38 week appointment scheduled with my doctor on Thursday at 2:20 and really liked to have Bryan there with me. He was able to come home from work and go to the appointment with me (even though he hadn’t been at work all week because of jury duty … Thanks MonaVie and Alex for being so understanding and working around our schedules!).
At the appointment my doctor, Dr. Jones (with Legacy OBGYN in American Fork, whom I highly recommend. He is absolutely fantastic) asked how I was feeling and if there was anything new going on in life. We quickly told him about Bryan’s jury duty and joked a bit that we this baby might be popping into the world without Dad present.
Dr. Jones checked all the important things they like to check at a 38 week appointment and settled back down onto his chair to chat for a minute. He told me, you look great. You are dilated to a 3 and are good and ready that this baby could come any minute. The baby is in a great position and you’re full term. Your strep B is negative and you have no high blood pressure issues… Do you want to have this baby tonight?
Thinking he was joking, I agreed that having the baby that night would be great.
He told me that he could help the whole process along and strip my membranes (TMI for a blog, maybe, but its my record keeping process and you choose to read a post about the birth of my baby so you get to deal. :)). He said that doing so would give me a 50/50 chance of starting labor tonight. He told me that he was on call all night, so he would be there to deliver the baby for sure (which I really wanted, because with James he was off and another doctor delivered James. It was fine, but I really like Dr. Jones and wanted him to deliver the baby).
We were a little bit worried about doing it and wondered if it didn’t start labor tonight, if it would speed up the process and I would end up going into labor some time next week, earlier than my due date and while Bryan really couldn’t be there. He told us it would either start or not start. He left us alone for a little while to family council it and decide what we wanted to do.
I liked the idea of having the baby and then having the whole weekend with Bryan home before he had to go back to jury duty. I also liked the idea of not having the worry in my head about the possibility of going into labor and not being able to get a hold of Bryan. I couldn’t decide what to do. I told Bryan it was up to him and he reminded me it wasn’t at all up to him, and it was up to me (being my body and all). Finally I decided that I was going to do it. I either would have a baby that night, or be in a some additional pain and not have a baby. Having a baby and no longer being pregnant won. I was so ready to not be pregnant.
Dr. Jones came back and we chatted a bit more about the whole process, he did what he needed to do and we were off for the day.
I wasn’t really sure what to think. I really wanted it to work and start labor, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up and be disappointed. So I started to make a list of things that I wanted to do just in case labor did start.
After we got home, we at dinner and watched Big Brother (its out summer tv guilty pleasure. such a stupid show, but so entertaining). Then I picked up a couple of rooms but didn’t actually do all the things on my list. Then, after putting James to sleep, we thought we should warn/ask Kevin if he would come up to our house and stay with James if we did go into labor that night. He was great and said he would.
Instead of going to bed and getting some sleep, Bryan and I stayed up and played Ticket to Ride (Looking back now, I realize I should have just gone to bed. I ended up only getting about 20 minutes of sleep). We climbed into bed around 11:30. Throughout the evening I had been feeling a few small contractions here and there, but nothing consistent and they weren’t getting more painful. As soon as I relaxed and tried to go to sleep, that’s when I really started to feel the contractions.
Around 1:30 they were consistently 7 minutes apart and getting more painful. I tried to get a little bit of sleep through them but to no avail, so I got up, washed my face and brushed my teeth. I put a few last minute things into my hospital bag and woke Bryan up at 2:30.
He had told me earlier that he didn’t think it was actually going to happen that night. So when I woke him up I made sure to tell him he lost the bet and we were having a baby. He woke up and called Kevin. We got a few more things ready for to leave while we waited for Kevin. He came, we got him some things to help take care of James when he woke up and were off.
The drive to the hospital was surprisingly calm. Bryan joked about taking me all the way into Provo to the hospital instead of American Fork. We talked about how I could have totally driven myself to the hospital and when we got there, I just had him park and we chatted about how nice of a night it was as we strolled through the parking lot to the front doors. We even stopped at the front door to document our arrival at the hospital with a picture.
We're Ready!
It was amazing how much more calm I was with this baby than with James. The contractions were 4 minutes apart, but weren’t crazy painful. I felt like I knew what to expect and was totally ready to have this baby. I had no fears of lack of preparation or not enough socks.
We got settled into the triage room around 3:40 so they could monitor me and make sure I was progressing before officially checking me in. Bryan and I played Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends back and forth for most of the hour. Then the contractions started to get more painful.
At 4:40 I had dilated to a 6 and they officially checked me into the hospital. They moved me into a labor and delivery room and called the anesthesiologist. I was so ready for my epidural.
My contractions hadn’t moved much closer together, but were more painful, so Dr. Jones came in, broke my water and put me on a pitocin IV to help the contractions move closer. John the anesthesiologist came in and we were on the way. I felt the epidural start down my left leg and into my toes. Then felt it move its way very very very slowly up my right leg, starting with my toes. It was 5 am.
The contractions were getting much closer together and much more painful. And the epidural had stopped making its way up my right leg. I could feel how painful the contractions were getting in just one little spot next to my right hip.
It hurt.
I cried.
I screamed.
We pushed the button to get me more of the epidural, but it wasn’t moving any farther up my right leg. She brought in Dr. Jones and explained that I had a “hot spot” that the epidural wasn’t hitting. He checked me, and I was dilated to an 8. They decided to go a head with the catheter and Dr. Jones told me he was going to get some water boiling and to get ready for a baby. The nurse then went to bring back the anesthesiologist to have him check to see if there was something wrong.
After Dr. Jones and the nurse left and the catheter was in place, the hot spot disappeared and I could feel the contractions radiating pain around both of my hips, back and down both legs. The epidural wasn’t working.
It hurt.
I cried.
I screamed.
Poor Bryan had no idea what to do to help me. I remember clinging to the railing of the bed and just shaking because of the pain. This wasn’t exactly how I had calmly remembered labor.
Dr. Jones and the nurse came back in and I was still only dilated to an 8, but Dr. Jones said the baby was coming and he was coming now. He calmly told me that I needed to push. I not so calmly told him there was no way I was pushing without the epidural working.
They had everything ready and told me to start pushing. I screamed. I kept telling them over and over that I couldn’t do it without an epidural that was working and I didn’t want to. I screamed and told them I wasn’t going to push. I could feel myself having a panic attack and I couldn’t breathe. The nurse and Dr. Jones told me to breathe and to push. If I would just push, the pain would go away. Everything would be better if I would just push. Dr. Jones told me I could do it. I couldn’t understand why the pain wouldn’t go away and I couldn’t understand why the baby was trying to come if I wasn’t even dilated to a 10 yet. He couldn’t come yet, my body wasn’t ready. I was breathing out short small bursts of air or holding my breathe trying to make the pain go away. I looked over at Bryan while I was screaming and crying. He looked terrified.The cute nurse was trying to get me to calm down and just breathe. I remember thinking to myself, “You are having a panic attack. You need to calm down and breathe.” but it didn’t happen. I had no control.
Amazingly though, during my panic attack and freak out, my body knew exactly what it needed to do and was pushing anyway. As I was telling Dr. Jones no, my body was doing exactly what he said to do and what it knew it needed to do.
At one point, I remember the nurse telling me to hold my legs. I told her I didn’t want to, put my feet in the holders and pushed away from the dr and nurse.
After two really hard pushes, he was here. I leaned over and looked, and there he was… my beautiful baby boy.
Here at last!
It was 6:10 a.m.
It took him a minute to cry and I looked at him and said, “cry, baby. cry.” Dr. Jones assured me that the baby was okay and soon the baby took his first breath and cried. It was beautiful to hear. Dr. Jones had Bryan cut the cord and they took the baby to clean him up a bit.
After a little bit, I could feel Dr. Jones stitching me up. I asked him what he was doing down there and if I had torn. He told me that during the part where I was “climbing up the table” I was going to tear so he just gave me a little more room so I didn’t tear (TMI again, but it’s my blog).
He was 6 pounds and 3 oz and 18 inches long. After cleaning him up a little bit and testing his breathing and everything, they let me know that he wasn’t breathing very well and needed to be placed on a breathing machine for an hour. But before they wisked him down to the nursery, they let me snuggle with him for a little bit. But then had to take him to the second floor. I told Bryan that I was okay and to stay with the baby.
After everything was over, I apologized over and over to the nurse and Dr. Jones for all my screaming and freaking out. They told me I was fine and that I did great. I still felt horrible and wanted everyone to know how sorry I was that I was so difficult and screamed so much. I still feel a little embarrassed, but I had no idea that I would have so little control over what my body was doing. It was like I was there, and inside, but couldn’t control it.
I know that because the epidural kind of worked, I didn’t feel everything that I’m sure I would have felt if I had a natural birth, but what I did feel was crazy painful. When I was younger, I had a few warts on my feet that I had frozen off. I remember it was pretty painful. I cried and screamed. Then suddenly in the middle of the process, I couldn’t feel anything anymore. My whole body had gone numb and I just looked at my mom. The doctor was quite confused and told my mom that I should be hurting a lot right now. Then everything turned back on and I was screaming again. I guess my body had just had too much and had shut down. I had always kind of hoped that something like that would happen during labor. Guess not.
Everyone had left the room and I was alone. Bryan and the baby were down on the second floor for the baby’s breathing treatment, the Dr. and nurses had left to let me relax and calm down a bit. I was so shaky. I couldn’t decide if I was cold or shaking because of everything that just happened. I sent out a couple of texts telling my family the baby was there. Called my mom and let her know the baby had come (she was getting ready to come down, but because he came so quickly, so completely missed it). Then, I got a phone call. It was 6:30 in the morning and it was a number I didn’t recognize. I’m not sure why I answered it, but I did. It was a good thing I did because it was my older brother.
We had a really nice chat he told me how much he loved me and how proud of me he was. I was pretty surprised by his call because it was 5:30 in LA. I didn’t think my brother’s body could actually function at that time (he normally doesn’t go to bed until at least 3 am and doesn’t get up until past noon). He was wonderfully sweet and it was so great to talk to him. We haven’t always gotten along, but I am so thankful that as we have gotten older we have become closer.
Bryan came up and showed me some pictures of the baby and I realized how much I missed him and wanted them to bring my baby back to me. But he was hooked up:
After an hour, the nurses shift had changed and my new nurse came in to let me know that there was no room for me on the Mother/Baby floor and that I would have to stay in labor and delivery for a while. I was okay with that, because the labor and delivery room are really nice and so much bigger. She asked if she could get anything for me and I told her I really missed my baby. And she set off to find him and bring him back to me. It was wonderful to have him in my arms again. The breathing treatment they gave him worked and he was breathing really well on his own and his lungs had expanded and everything was good.
Around this time, we got a message from Kevin telling us that James wasn’t too excited about mom and dad not being home when he woke up.
Where's my mom and dad?
He loves his uncle Kevin and aunt Aubrey though, and warmed right up to them. They were so great for watching him and bringing him to the hospital later (with the help of Lindsay and her car seat) (and capturing the sweetest moment of the day on camera… more on that in a minute).
We were finally able to move down to the mother/baby floor and get settled into our room. After lunch time, Kevin, Aubrey and Lindsay brought James to the hospital to meet his new brother. I was a little bit worried about how James would react to the new baby. Bryan went out in the hall to get James and bring him in. He set him on the bed with me and the baby and I leaned over and told James that this was his new brother. He looked at the baby for a second then reached up and patted his head. I moved the baby a little closer to James and without any prompting or any of us saying anything, James leaned over and gave Brennan a kiss.
Their first meeting
(How is that for great camera timing? Thanks guys for having the camera ready!)
It was so sweet. I melted my heart. They definitely knew each other in Heaven and James was excited to see his brother again. He loves having the baby home and wants to always see him and be by him (he’s getting a little too excited about the baby and hitting him, but we’re working on it).
We had a hard time deciding on a name and didn’t settle on one until right before we went home and had to fill in the paperwork for a birth certificate. Because it took us so long to figure out his name, I had a hard time calling him Brennan at first. I called him Bennett and Benson and Braden so often. I think Brennan is perfect though and it suits him so well.
After just a day in the hospital, I was good and ready to come home and get started with our new life as a family of four. So far the adjustment has been good. We are getting into the swing of things and with the help of some Dr. Pepper, I am actually getting stuff done. Hooray!
(congratulations on making it to the end of this post!)
P.S. It turns out that Bryan sat through the whole trial, but ended up being an alternate juror and when it was time for the deliberations they sent him home. I guess they do that a lot with trials. They have 10 jurors listen to the case, but only need 8 to actually decide the case. Learn something new every day.
